Ok one more question before I am going to start my batch... do the yeast packets tell you how many points they drop?
or is there a chart somewhere? I think I may have read about that in Ken Schram's book too so if it's in there I'll know in a lil bit once I get it from my truck...
I've come to see that even the best charts are guidelines at best. What is important is that you not push the yeast beyond its comfort zone so as to avoid off flavors, etc.
Most yeasts are 'good' to 14-16% ABV. Choose a yeast based more upon the flavors it leaves or doesn't, instead of how much alcohol it can tolerate.
Champagne yeasts, for example, will usually produce up to 18% alcohol, but deplete the mead of flavors. Montrachet yeast can leave off flavors under some conditions (or so I have been told), and some strains cannot be left on the lees (the sediment/dead yeast on the bottom) because they will break it down and leave nasty flavors.
There are people here much much more knowledgeable than I who can help much more, but there is a listing of common yeasts available in the yellow block to the left on this page.
The best practice, in my opinion is to choose a yeast that gives you a good mix of abilities (letting your fruit or spices come through, acceptable fermentation time, temperature tolerance, and lastly alcohol tolerance) and 'construct' your must accordingly.
For instance, if you want medium-sweet mead with an ABV of around 12%, you might decide to start with around 2.5 lbs of honey, let the yeast ferment it dry, stabilize it and then add honey to it a couple of days later, checking sweetness as you add.
I recently made a batch of traditional mead that I wanted to end up with 12% alcohol using yeast that was good to 14% alcohol, but I added enough honey for about 16% alcohol. So when it got to 12%, I "cold crashed" it, which is putting it in the freezer for a couple of hours to bring the temp down fast, then put it in the fridge for a week. What this did was to stop the yeast without killing them, and they all settled to the bottom for me. Then I siphoned (racked) the clear, 12% mead off into another jug with a campden tablet and potassium sorbate, and then used the dormant yeast in another batch right away. The mead came out right at 12%, right where I wanted it, and with just a touch of sweetness. After aging, it will be exactly what I had wanted. A first for me! <lol>
This is the way fatbloke recommended I do it, and I'll tell you, I'll have a very hard time doing it any other way now.
I guess that's a long winded way of saying "alcohol content ain't everything, and if I can do it, anybody can!"
Good luck,
Joe
